


The Colony: Extras

by BurningLio



Series: The Colony [15]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, But this is a prequel so he’s not dead obviously lmao, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningLio/pseuds/BurningLio
Summary: Backstory, side stories, and deleted scenes from “The Colony.” Updated whenever I feel like it.Most recent: “Beginning of the End” - Galo wakes up on the Parnassus.
Relationships: Aina Ardebit & Galo Thymos, Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Series: The Colony [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1659124
Comments: 9
Kudos: 31





	The Colony: Extras

**Author's Note:**

> At last, I finally get around to writing some more Colony content! This fic will be the catch-all for me to post various oneshots from the Colony verse which didn’t fit into the main story or I didn’t get around to writing. Tags and warnings will be added as I go.
> 
> Also, epilogue stuff will probably be posted in a separate fic, so this is mostly gonna be during the timeline of the main story and/or focused on side characters.

The first words out of Galo’s mouth when he opens his eyes are, “Where’s Lio?”

He tries to sit up, and Aina pushes him back down. “Calm down and don’t try to move,” she says, and it’s the same calm, urgent tone he’s heard her use at the site of a fire, checking victims for injuries. “You got banged up pretty badly.”

“I’m fine,” Galo says impatiently. He aches all over, actually, bruised and battered, but it’s not important. None of it feels like _burns,_ which is odd, considering his last memory is being hit square in the chest with a massive fireball from Kray. He brushes Aina aside and sits up anyway, nearly bumping his head on a low ceiling above him. He doesn’t recognize where they are, a small, cramped room with utilitarian bunks built into the walls - that’s what he almost hit his head on, he realizes, he’s sitting in one of the bunks. An emergency shelter? “What _happened?_ Where are we? Where’s Lio?”

Aina takes a deep breath. “Galo, you have to stay calm, okay?”

“Aina,” Galo says, a warning note to his voice. She’s starting to scare him. His heart is hammering in his chest.

“We’re… on the Parnassus,” Aina whispers. “We found you and got you on board before it took off. It’s been nearly two days.”

“Two _days?”_ Galo tries to leap to his feet at that, but Aina shoves him down again, more forcefully.

“Galo, _please,”_ she says, and Galo can hear the stress in her voice, breaking through her professional rescuer facade. “You need to rest. You nearly died - it’s a miracle you didn’t, you were on fire when we found you…”

And Galo realizes he knows, somehow, instinctively, why he wasn’t burned. The memory of Kray’s fire engulfing him - and the pale blue flames that cocooned him before the heat could touch him. He can feel it now that he’s thinking about it, a faint flickering warmth in his right hand. He holds up his hand and opens it, and the tiny blue flame is visible, guttering weakly, no bigger than a candle. “It was Lio,” Galo says softly. “Lio protected me.”

“Galo…”

Galo’s jaw clenches, looking up at Aina, standing in front of him to block him from getting out of bed. “Where is Lio?” he asks again, his voice soft and shaky, though he has a terrible feeling he knows the answer. _Lio, screaming, already dying._ He’d tried to get him out. Kray stopped him. Which means--

Aina shakes her head. “I’m so sorry,” she says softly. “But I haven’t heard from him. We only found you, there wasn’t a trace of anyone else. He… he’s probably…”

“He’s not dead,” Galo says loudly. “See?” He brandishes his hand at her, cupping the tiny flame protectively. “It’s _his_ fire. He’s _still alive._ Kray… Kray used him as the engine core. He’s in there, it’s killing him, we’ve got to get him out, Aina—!”

“And how do you expect us to get there?” Aina demands. “We’re stuck on this deck. We don’t have any access to the rest of the ship. Freeze Force is running security in this place, and they’re armed. Even if we could get past the access doors, we’d never make it off the deck, let alone to the engine.”

“Maybe your sister could…”

“Heris won’t help us,” Aina says flatly. Galo stares at her, surprised by the bitterness in her voice.

“But she-”

“She came here before you woke up. Wanted me to come back to her deck with her, without you, and I told her no. I got… a little heated.” Aina laughs humorlessly, and it’s a laugh Galo’s never heard from her before, cold and angry. “She sold her soul to get me on this ship and she didn’t give a shit about anyone else. Well, I hope she’s happy. She got what she wanted and she’s going to have to live with that.”

Galo’s heart twists. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Aina’s voice is flat. “She made her choice. I get to make mine.”

“Well, I’m not giving up yet.” Galo glares up at her, clutching Lio’s tiny, guttering flame to his chest. “I have to get to Lio. I don’t care what I have to do. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Galo,” Aina whispers. Then she sighs. “Just please don’t get yourself killed. You and the rest of the team…” She hesitates. “You’re all I’ve got now, you know?”

The truth is that Aina is right. The quarters for the general public are small and cramped; there’s nothing here but identical tiny cabins, bathrooms and showers at regular intervals along the corridors, and a small dining area at each end of the deck. There’s no way to the other levels. The access hatches are completely sealed. Galo throws himself at the metal doors in frustration, even tries to see if he can use Lio’s flame to burn his way through, though it quickly becomes apparent that he can’t really use the fire in the ways Lio did. It clings to his skin, but it doesn’t respond to him otherwise, doesn’t catch anything else alight, and even if it did burn he has to admit to himself that it’s now far too small to manage something like burning through a solid metal door.

He’s ready to punch a Freeze Force guard in the jaw if he sees one, weapons or no weapons, but they don’t even show up. Down here, the sealed doors are security enough. No one up above probably has even noticed Galo’s attempts to get out.

He winds up back in his bunk, staring at the flame in his hands. There is no question by now that it is getting smaller. Tears of helplessness well in his eyes, and he tries to blink them back, caught by a sudden absurd fear that he might extinguish the fire with his own tears, that doing so would somehow hurt Lio.

“They told us the warp transit would only last a few days,” Aina says softly, sitting next to him. “Maybe he’ll hold on that long… we’ll find a way to go back for him when we land…”

Galo shakes his head numbly. “You didn’t see him, Aina. He was dying before we even left Earth. He was in so much pain, h-he…” He trails off, the memory of Lio’s screams loud and vivid in his mind. Lio’s been trapped in that thing this entire time, in that much pain, closer to death with every passing second… and it’s Galo’s fault, Galo who failed to save him from that.

“ _Shit!”_ Galo curls his hand into a fist and punches the wall of the cabin before Aina can stop him. The shock of the impact rings painfully up his bones, jarring him. Part of him wants to keep doing it, to feel something _break_ even if it’s himself, make the pain drown out everything else. It’s Aina’s presence that stops him, remembering unbidden what she’d said about Heris. _You’re all I’ve got now._

He was all Lio had, too, and he failed him.

“I’ll never forgive him!” Galo shouts, realizing from the way his voice cracks that he’s sobbing. “ _Never!_ How could he… how…”

He feels Aina’s arm wrap around his shoulders, holding on tight, and he leans in against her as he cries, clutching Lio’s flame to his chest.

Galo doesn’t move from his bunk for a while after that, even when Aina leaves to go get food that’s being served in the mess halls, barely registering her quiet promise to bring him something. He’s still watching the flame, can’t really think about anything else. It feels like he’s holding a vigil.

“Can you hear me?” he whispers. “Do you know I’m here? I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Galo swallows hard, his tears making the flame blur and slide in his vision. “I wish we’d had more time. Wish I could see you again, just one more time, I wish…”

The flame gutters lower, and Galo feels sick. “Please,” he whispers. “Please don’t go. Please…”

No one hears him. Nothing answers his plea. In the end he simply watches, still and silent, as Lio’s last act of protection gutters out to nothing in his hands, and Galo sobs helplessly.

When Aina returns with dinner, she finds him curled on his side in his bunk, quietly weeping. Her face changes when she sees him, and he thinks she understands what happened.

“Galo,” she whispers, putting a hand on his shoulder, and somehow her sympathy burns like ice. Galo can’t bear it. He rolls over to face the wall, curled up with his hands clutching nothing to his chest as if the flame left some invisible remains he can hold onto, and cries inconsolably.

Lio is gone. Earth is gone. It’s over.

**Author's Note:**

> obligatory shameless plug section - come say hi on Twitter, I’m @BurningLio!
> 
> I’m also organizing a Lio whump-themed zine right now, so check it out if that sounds like fun - applications are currently open: @BURNOUTLioZine


End file.
